


A gift

by Ghelik



Series: Loki & Friends [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Norse Religion & Lore, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Asgard, Asgard being judgamental, Fluff and Crack, Loki gets a gift, Magic and Science, Odin's Parenting, Robots, Rumors, loki has friends, my take on the Sleipnir myth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-30 23:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6446161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghelik/pseuds/Ghelik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For his five hundred birthday Angrboda and Svadilfari gift Loki with a horse.  - My take on the Sleipnir Myth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A gift

The stallion was magnificent. It had long thin legs, a perfectly proportioned body, and a beautiful head, everything done on dark uru metal and decorated with intricate knots and runes.

  
Loki looked from the horse to Svađilfari to Angrbođa and back to the horse again.

 

Svađilfari and Angrbođa had lured him out of the Great Hall and into the royal stables, where the music and chatter of the celebration were but a soft murmur in the wind. 

 

All the way here he kept looking over his shoulder, sure he would be missed and probably hunted down by a rather drunk Thor and his obnoxious knot of friends. It was, after all, Loki's five-hundred birthday party and he was supposed to make merry with the rest of Asgard. 

 

But all thoughts of his brother vanished as soon as he saw the beautiful machine standing in his old mare's box. 

 

“You like it?” asked Svađilfari twisting his hands nervously.

  
“He’s fantastic,” Loki managed to keep his voice from trembling.

  
His mare had died during a rather nasty battle on the outskirts of the Grandagar capital in Muspelheimr two years ago.  Loki hadn’t found a substitute for her yet and had been content enough to ride one of the many steeds in his father's stables. 

 

The prince stepped forward, caressing the soft, warm metal on the horse's neck.  “Is he a tabi-robot?”

 

Svađilfari barked a laugh. "Tabi-robots wish they were like this one!"

 

Angrbođa nodded, a small smile playing around his mouth. "Svad said you had this theory about enchanting robots." Moved closer "You see the core in the chest?" Loki peeked through a small space in the tightly wound metal to see a dark orb floating in the machine's chest cavity. "It's waiting for your magical signature to activate."

 

"I put a bit of magic into it already, to try him out and such." Svađilfari was nearly bouncing in his boots. "But you'll have to charge it to make him work. Then it will answer to nobody else but you."

  
Angrbođa crossed his massive arms over his chest. He was the biggest of the three and the friends usually relied on him for anything requiring brute force. Unlike the rest of the warriors in Asgard, he didn't mock Svađilfari or Loki for their use of magic and was openly impressed by their talents. 

 

"I am sure you can teach it a few tricks."

 

Loki pressed his hand to the metal, sending a thin tendril of magic into the silent orb and jumped back when the whole body lit up, the orb shining through the metal, making it look like it was on fire. 

 

The horse blinked it's brilliant eyes open and when it shock its head, the only sound it made was a rather realistic whine. It moved, dancing softly on his tiny hooves. It's intelligent eyes fixed on Loki.

  
It was a beautiful animal, an exquisite machine and, for once in his live Loki was completely speechless.

  
“You like it?”, asked Svađilfari with a shy smile.

  
“I love him.”

***

 

He named him Tuuli and spent a lot of time tinkering with the magic and the mechanisms inside. 

 

Within the fortnight Tuuli was the swiftest and most silent of the horses in the Kings’ Stables. Four months later he could grow enough to accommodate a giant and shrink to fit in Loki’s hand. Less than a year after being given to him, and with a considerable amount of help from Svađilfari, the horse could world-walk nearly as good as Loki himself.

  
Of course, the extreme advantages of such a steed seemed to pass unnoticed by most everyone in Asgard. Since Odin disliked machines in general and had a great disregard for robots in particular, the court sneered at machines and considered robots a joke.  Tuuli not being an exception.

  
Loki had learned about robots during his travels across the universe. He had discovered that, on Asgard, only the province of Tabi fabricated them. 

 

At first, Svađilfari and the Prince expressed an interest in the Tabi-robots to spite the traditionalists that sneered about their magic. But their rebellious intent soon turned into curiosity. They started toying with the idea of intertwining their magic with the machines, writing lengthy essays about their studies and getting increasingly frustrated by Asgardian's inability to accept change of any kind. 

 

After ten years, the King was still not happy about Tuuli’s arrival and he made sure his box was at the farthest corner, as far away as possible from the “real” horses.

  
Loki, on the other hand, was absurdly proud of everything Tuuli learned and did, and kept boasting about it to everyone who cared to listen.

  
He was immersed in the tale of how Tuuli had learned to world-walk when Fandral made the first joke: “You talk about it with more pride than a mother.”

  
In retrospect, he shouldn’t have said “well, he’s like a baby” so flippantly. But it was true: Tuuli was like a baby, and he was learning so much! Svađilfari boasted, too, but being more reserved and cautious; he kept his exuberance to his friends.

 

***

 

The good thing about machines: they can be repaired.  
Tuuli was fifty years old when Loki found Odin in his box, the great spear resting on top of the magical orb that was Tuuli’s heart. The body bwas broken and strewn carelessly around the tiny box.

  
“Father!”

  
Odin looked at him with a storm in his eyes. “I've had enough of this!”

  
Loki gathered his magic and, as if sensing his presence, the magical orb teleported to his hands. He could feel it trembling and shaking and felt immediately protective of it. 

 

“You’ve made yourself the laughingstock of Asgard!” his father was saying. “You embarrass me with this…. This...!”

  
“I don’t care. It is foolish to discard a powerful resource only because you don’t like it!”

  
“There are many horses in these stables, you can take whichever one you like best! You’re only clinging to that thing to spite me!”

  
“I love this horse!”

  
“IT IS NOT A HORSE!” howled the King, his spear vibrating with power. Loki gathered his magic about him, on the ground the metallic pieces seemed to tremble. “Yes, it is.”

  
“I will not have my son running around on a…”

  
“You cannot stop me. You may destroy this one, but I can make another. And another. And another one after that! I know how it’s made and I will have the best steed on the battlefield! You know why, father? Because you taught me to use the best weapon at my disposal! Because you taught me that being seen as insignificant and harmless, as ridiculous and stupid can be your greatest asset. And if Asgard is too proud to understand that their horses will scare and tremble and die, whereas mine cannot be killed, will not abandon me, can protect me with his magic, and fuel my magic with his own. Then so be it!”

  
Odin’s hand on his spear was white-knuckled, his eye shining with half contained wrath. He couldn’t remember when his son had turned so irresponsible, when he had learned to talk back with such vehemence.

  
“They speak of you. They say you birthed that creature.”

  
Loki snorted, his thumbs tracing small soothing circles on the glowing orb. “They’ve called me argr before.” It bothered him when he was younger, but now the insult has lost most of its bite.

  
“Loki," Odin shakes his head tiredly, "reputation is a powerful thing to have. You should care for yours more. I’m doing this to protect you.”

  
“I know what I am doing.”

  
Odin exhaled an explosive sigh shaking his head. His voice was very soft. “No, you do not. But, you will not listen to me. Very well. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  
He left and Loki set to repair the damaged body of his beautiful Tuuli.

 

***

 

Loki was sitting in his tiny glass cell, his hands on his knees, trying to rest when that obnoxious little man with the hum in his chest came in. “Fury said to stay away from you”, he said in lieu of greeting. “But” he shrugged and Loki had to bite back a smile. He was small and stocky and had a way of talking that reminded him of Angrbođa…

He pushed his mind away from there and fixed the little man with a stare that had unnerved a lot of courtiers. “I got to ask.” The man tried an abashed smile, but kind of failed. “Is it true you fucked a horse?”

  
Loki raised an eyebrow. The man was smirking and making a very poor attempt at concealing it. He should have known. Of all his exploits, in all his years, the only thing these sad little creatures remembered were tales about a court rumor.

  
He looked the little man up and down and let himself smirk. "Well.... since you asked..."


End file.
